PROBLEM - Anthony Lockwood

CHAPTER SEVENTY

~

lxx

if seventy is a word why isnt eleventy

~

THE DOOR OPENED and two sets of footsteps suddenly filled the room.

Lockwood and Alice sprang apart and hid behind the shelves.

Alice glanced at Lockwood, signalling for him to wipe the smudged lipstick off of his lips.

Lockwood grinned, winking and blowing a kiss to her.

"It'll be quieter in here," came a familiar female voice. "So, what have they been saying?"

Alice glanced over the shelves. Penelope Fittes.

"Some of the members are getting restless. They feel you're not helping them sufficiently with their work."

Alice's eyes widened.

She couldn't see. She couldn't breathe.

She knew that voice.

Rupert Gale. The top Hunter of the Society.

He had been the one to capture Alice, to kidnap her, a year ago. The one hunter strong enough to best a Deane Witch. Then he had shoved that godforsaken device into her skin to stop her magic and dragged her to the Society.

Where they tortured and experimented on her for months.

The Pit.

Alice bit her tongue so hard that blood flowed into her mouth.

She could not be weak. She could not allow herself to be captured. She could not allow Lockwood to be hurt.

Hate, rage, and pain - the skull had commanded her to use.

And Adelaide Deane despised him.

"Exactly, their work - if they're not up to the challenge, I fail to see how that's my problem," Penelope whined. "I'm not their nursemaid."

"Well, quite," Gale replied, "But, you are their inspiration."

"They'd do well not to forget that," Penelope hissed. She swore under her breath, "Especially with the arrival of her. Did you see? She has the audacity to come into Fittes - she's here right now!"

Alice turned discreetly. They were surely talking about her.

"I can capture her again," Gale offered.

Penelope shook her head, "I spoke to her at Sam Pandey's funeral, and something's changed. She subdued Combe Carey Hall by herself - there's growing whispers that perhaps she is her mother's daughter."

"Why was she allowed to thrive unchecked? You should've told me sooner," Gale chastised.

"All of the members are teriffied of her. Apparently, the daughter of Delilah Deane was much more fun to them when she was full of needles and trapped in a Pit in the ground," Penelope declared.

Alice looked hard at the floor. Avoiding Lockwood's gaze. If they said anything else, then it would implicate her worse in his eyes.

"I'll go dig a new Pit, shall I?" Gale chuckled.

Alice felt sick.

She had to kill him.

"No, thanks. But I do have something for you to use instead, to quell their complaining," Penelope announced. Through the gap in the shelves, Alice watched as she pulled out the black box and handed it to him. "Repaired and tested. Somehow, it's working again, even after all of the damage she did to it. You can tell them it's a token of my goodwill. From their inspiration."